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Summary: Great Reading!
Review: The story of Animal Farm is written by George Orwell. In the story Old Major calls a meeting of the animals to discuss his dreams. Old Major wants the animals to stop being slaves. Then Major teaches them the Beasts of England song. Sadly, Old Major died, but his dreams were still alive with the animals. Old Major's dream was called Animalism. Next, the humans are run off the farm. The animals are upset because the farmer was not feeding them. Then Napoleon, the leader of the farm, gets rid of Snowball by having "his dogs" attack and chase Snowball off the farm. Also, Napoleon takes away the last signs of the rebellion. He changes the name of the farm back to Manor Farm. Finally, Napoleon and the other pigs turn into humans. They walk on their hind legs, wear clothes, and talk. All in all, Animal Farm is a sad story. I would suggest that adults and teenagers read Animal Farm. One thing I liked about the book was that the animals demonstrated good team work. The animals carried in the harvest and they helped rebuild the windmill that a storm destroyed. Another thing I enjoyed was Old Major's character. All the animals really looked up to him. Finally, I liked the idea of all animals or humans being "comrades". We should all learn to be friends. I would definitely read this book again.
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Summary: Orwell Scores a Plus With Me!
Review: I think that George Orwell's book is a great book. It does have some seriouos topics like war,death,freedom, etc. But overall the book brings a lighthearted mood beacuse of its useage of animals as characters. This book can be read by many levels from young teen to adult. Mainly because of its use of animals as characters. That is the key in Orwells' book. So If you are looking for a good book that is not like any other you will read i would imagine that you should pick up Orwell's book at www.amazon.com!
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Summary: Swine
Review: A savage, telling satire on totalitarianism in general, the perversion of the communist ideal at the hands of flawed men in particular. If nothing else, 'All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others' will live forever. The later '1984' tackled a similar theme in a bleaker, more monotonous manner, and seems to lack the sense of disgust that permeates 'Animal Farm'.Despite being a 'classic', with all that entails, it's actually quite short, to-the-point, blackly comic, and written in a clear, crisp style that makes you wish all political allegory was so easily-approachable. A generation of schoolchildren were probably put off this book by school (for a time it was a popular, slightly-controversial choice amongst English teachers), and traumatised by the sad fate of Boxer, the horse. There was an aminated film, too - equally effective, it stuck faithfully to the novel, with the addition of a more optimistic ending, one which seemed to mirror the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union.
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Summary: Don't take this book literally!
Review: At first, this book seemed absurd-- we are reading it for my English 2 honors class and many people had questiond about the literal interpreataion of this book, ie, "Animals can't talk!' but the book's message amazed me more on every page, and I almost screamed at the end. Terrifying, and a must read.
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Summary: The political animal is a pig!
Review: This book shows how any ideology, however altruistic, eventually grows rotten as a political organization administers it.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: This was a fun book to read. It gave me a look into how messed up a government can become. That and it was nice and short. Time is a big factor since it's so close to graduation. I'd recomend this book to anyone; it is definately a must read.
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Summary: The World That Was, Isn't Anymore
Review: In August of 1945, war was still raging in the far east and the atomic bomb had yet been dropped on Japan, but George Orwell dropped his own bomb on International Communism, a bomb so overwhelming, that Stalin had no comments to make to Truman when he asked Stalin about it. Animal Farm is a wonderfully written political book on how the system works to make those that work under them believe they are doing better than before, all the while warning them of unforeseen enemies that might attack unless they do as they are told. And when worse comes to worse, the system itself purposely provokes a war with those unforeseen enemies in order to keep the those that work under them in line. When George Orwell wrote Animal Farm, he was directly speaking about Communism and the Red Revolution in Russia of 1914. But after reading the book, we can easily apply it to our Establishment here in the United States and most Western European Countries today. The basic plot of the story is rather simple. The animals of a farm, owned by one Mr. Jones, speak stories of revolution and throwing off the human masters. They speak of slavery and oppression. Most importantly, they speak of equality. Equality for all animals, or as they put it, "Four legs good, two legs bad!" During the whole course of this book, it is always the pigs that decide how things are run, although in the beginning a minority, they grow to be a majority in time. It is the pigs who end up living in bliss while the other animals they work hard everyday and live with nothing, but all the while they are told by the pigs that they are in fact living with more than they were before the revolution. How can the other animals argue with that, they say to themselves, they scarily remember the days before the revolution, so the pigs must be right. In the end, the animals learn a harsh lesson in life, as they look upon the barn wall were in the beginning of the revolution, the pigs wrote down seven commandments for the way the animal world should be, they learn that over time the words that they all swore to live by have slowly changed with time. "All animals are equal" no longer stood alone, but now had an additional line added to it, namely, "but some animals are more equal than others." I strongly recommend this book to everyone who wishes to think and stop being a lemming in society. This book will give you a strong understanding of how the System works, and when applied to present day Western governments, it bares a strong resemblance. Whether or not you believe the Jews are the System, when Orwell points out one species of animal as being the masters and manipulators of that animal society, he isn't talking about class, but race.
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Summary: Animals To Humans
Review: Animal Farm by George Orwell is a wonderfully written book. Hey, what book by George Orwell isn't good? The book takes place on an English Farm called Manor Farm which is owned by Mr. Jones. Mr. Jones is a very bad farmer who neglects the animals. He gets drunk almost everyday and doesn't feed the animals. One day, after years of mistretament, one of the animals gives a compelling speech to rebel against Mr. Jones and to take over the farm. Inspired by the speech, all the animals on the farm make a plan and carry it out. They are successful and take over the farm. The plot of the story takes the reader through the trials and tribulations of what the animals do to keep the farm going and to stay alive. At first the farm is successful and all the anaimals are happy. But the choosen leader of the farm, a pig named Napolean, gets power hungry and does what's best for him and his fellow pigs and doesn't care for the other animals on the farm. Napolean starts acting like a communist leader and wants all the other animals to be scared of him and to be loyal to his regime. As time goes by, Napolean starts acting like a human. He starts sleeping on the bed in the farm house, starts to drink alcohol and plays poker. These are things the animals promised not to do. Eventually, Napolean becomes a leader who is even worse than Mr. Jones ever was. This is a very good book with a great plot and compelling conclusion. This is a very book which anyone can read and enjoy. The plot of the book is great with new surprising story lines rising every chapter. This book keeps the reader intrigued and the book is very suspenseful. I recommend that you read this book.
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Summary: one of the few books in my life that I will never forget
Review: Animal Farm is an imaginatively suspenseful novel based on communism and socialism. Although the characters in the story are farm animals, they represent influential figures of the Russian Revolution. In the midst of an unsettling atmosphere between farmer and animals, Old Major, a prize-winning boar, as well as a metaphor of Karl Marx, spreads the idea of a utopian society and a rebellion among the animals. The animals, never before charismatic enough to think of this vision themselves, seize the very first chance that comes up to drive the tyrant farmer Mr. Jones (Czar Nicholas II), his wife, and the farm hands out of the farm. The other pigs feed off his inspiration, and are eventually overcome with greed, using it to benefit themselves, instead of following through on the Old Major's original proposal. In the long and short of it, some pigs lead a revolt against people, act like jerks, and play poker. George Orwell creates a satire in his book Animal Farm, ridiculing the Russian government in the shadow of his words. His book warns against totalitarianism, which is displayed through the pig's slowly growing power over the animals after the riddance of the previous dictator, Mr. Jones. However, this is not the only work portraying Orwell's view of Soviet Communism. His previous novel, 1984 displays yet more depth into the author's view into the so-called idea of a utopian society. He believes "although socialism is good as an ideal, it can never be successfully adopted due to uncontrollable sins of human nature." Orwell's fable is a must read, however, to make full sense of this novel, I would only recommend this book to mature audiences of at least thirteen or over.
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Summary: A Masterpiece
Review: This is possibly the greatest book ever written by man. "All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others" I can't read or think of that brillant line without getting shivers down my spine. This is a book that should be read by every literate human being on the face of the earth.
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